Don't forget, there were also "spar torpedoes", which were bombs on the ends of poles and which were designed to be rammed into an enemy vessel. They were as dangerous to the user as to the target. Cushing used one against the CSS "Albemarle" and sank the ironclad, but the explosion swamped his steam launch. The Confederate submarine "Hunley" used one against the U.S.S. "Housatonic", again sinking the target, but the "Hunley" never made it home - until 2001, that is. What we generally think of as a "torpedo" did not come out until the Whitehead self-propelled torpedo in the 1870's.